Sunday, 21 March 2010

I stole this poem from the voiceless
From the forgotten, struggling, and homeless
I stole this poem from every life
Cut short by violence and domestic strife

I stole this poem from the innocence of Leonard Peltier and Mumia Abu Jamal
From every political prisoner whose name I can't recall
And anyone who ever died from AIDS
Or wrists bled dry by razor blades
I stole this poem from every single refugee
Whose land was destroyed by this democracy
From invasions of Panama, Haiti and Grenada
And the Cuban exile of the revolutionary Assata
I stole it from Brandon Teena and James Byrd
From every hate crime about which we've never heard
From immigrant workers and Operation Bootstrap
Every black called nigger or Mexican called wetback
From the gas chambers of Auschwitz
And cadaver-filled Iraqi death pits

I stole this poem from the ashes of bombed black churches

I stole this poem from every crack purchase
I stole this poem from four dead girls in Birmingham
I stole this poem from every enslaved African,

Yes, yes, I stole this poem from the tattered dreams of MLK
And from the illegal detainees at Guantanamo Bay
From every child that grew up gay
And decided it was better to runaway
Than face a father's fist or mother's hate
Or to escape Matthew Shephard's fate

I stole this poem from villages bulldozed by Israel
And from every Palestinian ever killed
By the colonial ambitions and Zionist aspirations

Of that unlawful, racist, illegitimate nation

I stole this poem from Fred Hampton as he lay in bed

While bullets entered his sleeping head
From Sojourner Truth and Harriet Tubman
From every little girl who never had the chance to be a woman
I stole this poem from every lost fight for liberation
From the sabotaged movement for Puerto Rico as a free nation
And the blood that runs from the red, white, and blue
From every CIA sponsored anti-"Marxist" coup

I stole this poem from strange fruit hanging in trees

I stole this poem from experiments at Tuskegee
I stole this poem from thousands of interned Japanese
I stole this poem from millions of dead Vietnamese

I stole this poem from Jones Town and Cape Town

From Nat Turner and John Brown

The continued fight of Aung Sang Suu Kyi
For the realization of Burmese liberty
Dear God, I stole this poem from the working poor
From every brown sister called bitch, cunt, or whore
By brown men who should love them but instead lash out in fear
At a world that would rather that we not be here
I stole this poem from the crushed body of Rachel Corrie
Her death another chapter in Sharon's story
Beginning with genocide and homicide
And Moses' law by which he can't seem to abide
The clear commandment that "thou shall not kill"
And he continues to murder still

I stole this poem and wrote it as prophecy

That what has been will cease to be
The time has come for us to be free
And tear down the constructions of our enemies
To reclaim our histories, take back our lands
To arrive at victory anyway that we can
Either by Martin's or Malcolm's plan
I stole this poem, and I'm giving it back
To ready my people for the final attack
Against a corrupt system that must fall
If we're ever to have liberty and justice for all.

'IF I COULD TEACH THE WORLD TO LIVE IN PERFECT HARMONY'

H.I.M HAILE SELASSIE I

FROM LONDON TO HARARE

When I saw him, I fell at his feet as though dead. Then he placed his right hand on me and said: "Do not be afraid. I am the First and the Last. I am the Living One; I was dead, and behold I am alive for ever and ever! And I hold the keys of death and Hades. Rev 1 v 17 - 18

The Black Madonna

THOMAS MALTHUS

copyleft DV.net

ACHTUNG

ANTI IRAQ WAR ART

By Mike Vallen, 2003

Mother Theresa

Iman

RAIMI GBADAMOSI, VISUAL ARTIST & SCHOLAR

"I believe in a world without borders"

"..if they desist, know well that Allah is Ever-Forgiving, Most Compassionate"

MALE & FEMALE CHROMOSOMES

There are about 20-30 human intersex states known.

Jarmila Kratochvílová, Czech Rep & Caster Semenya, RSA

The current women 800m world record holder Jarmila Kratochvílová, no questions of identity asked, but she looks just as if not more 'masculine' yet Semenya is also just as feminine as she.

STANISLLAWA WALASIEWICZ (STELLA WALSH), POLAND

Winner of the 100m race at the 1932 Olympics. She was forced to return her medals after the IOC found out that she a hermaphrodite.

MARIA JOSE MARTINEZ PATINO, SPAIN

The woman who battled to prove she was a woman.

SANTHI SOUNDARARJAN, INDIA

Winner of a Silver Medal at the 2006 Asian Games who 'failed' a gender test

MARIA MUTOLA, MOZAMBIQUE

African Champion with nine international titles to her name. When she first broke onto the international scene, rumours started doing the rounds she was a man and not a woman, but there was no substance to these ridiculous claims.

SERENA WILLIAMS, USA

Tennis Champ whose name has spun the rumour mills because of her masculine appearance...Nothing but jealousy.

MARION JONES, USA

Is this a thing of beauty? One blogger suggested from the neck down Semenya and Jones look the same. Could their capabilities in strength also be somewhat similar regardless of chromosomes & sans the performance enhancers Jones took?

DERARTU TULU, ETHIOPIA

First Black African to win an Olympic Medal in Barcelona, 1992. Nawal El-Mutawakel of Morrocco was the the first African to win an Olympic Medal in 1984.

ALICE COACHMAN, USA

First Black Woman to ever compete AND win Gold at the Olympics, Berlin Games, 1936

CASTER SEMENYA WINNER OF WOMEN'S 800M IAAF GAMES 2009

FROM PRESIDENT-ELECT TO PRESIDENT

THE JOKER - THE ORIGINAL

This was originally done by an art student, Firas Khateeb before B.O was inaugerated. It was a part of a series of experimental images not as expressive of political opinion.